During the two years before the disastrous opening of HealthCare.gov, federal officials in charge of creating the online insurance marketplace received 18 written warnings that the mammoth project was mismanaged and off course but never considered postponing its launch, according to government investigators. The warnings included a series of 11 scathing reviews from an outside consultant - among them a top-10 list of risks drawn up in the spring of 2013 that cited inadequate planning for the website's capacity and deviations from usual IT standards. A few months before, then-Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had hired another consultant...

<p>Former Health and Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sebelius is back, and she has figured out why the Affordable Care Act is so unpopular.</p>
<p>No, it’s not the law’s imposition of new taxes on those who have health insurance, or the “fines” levied on individuals who are now forced to purchase insurance whether they want it or not. It’s not the limits the law places on access to preferred health care providers. It’s not the fact that millions in the individual market lost the plans with which they were happy with but did not comport with new ACA coverage standards, nor the fact that millions more are set to lose their policies when the law is eventually fully implemented. It’s not the law’s deleterious impact on the labor participation rate, which remains at its lowest point since the Carter administration.</p>

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Tuesday dismissed the recent comments by ObamaCare consultant Jonathan Gruber, though she acknowledged that “a lot of Americans have no idea what insurance is about.” Gruber, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, came under fire last month for saying the process of passing ObamaCare was purposefully obscured and for calling voters “stupid” because they did not understand healthcare. In an Q&A with USA Today, Sebelius called him “dead wrong” on the issue of transparency. But she added that throughout her tenure as HHS secretary, she learned that many Americans...

Well, she may claim to not know who Jonathan Gruber is, but she sure did get a copy of his talking points. Discussing Obamacare with a USA Today reporter, former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius blamed many of the lawâ€™s problems on the fact that Americans lack her sophisticated understanding of insurance: Still, Sebelius didnâ€™t dispute the point that many Americans donâ€™t fully understand how health insurance and the Affordable Care Act work, including the trade-offs involved in expanding coverage.â€śA lot of Americans have no idea what insurance is about,â€ť she said. â€śI think the financial literacy...

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius acknowledged Friday that she made mistakes leading up to the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, worrying too much about whether there’d be a market for Obamacare and spending “too little time clearly on the technology side.” “I sure made some mistakes along the way in terms of focusing on some things and not on others,” she said at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki cannot get a handle on the recent scandalous treatment of veterans in VA hospitals, where more than 40 sick men were allowed to die without proper follow-up treatment. A cover-up allegedly followed. When the Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal broke under the George W. Bush administration, heads rolled. So far, Shinseki seems immune from similar accountability. Almost nothing that former Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius promised before, during or after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act came true. She was also cited by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel for...

It isnâ€™t getting a lot of attention, but the country is currently amid an important transition for the very important position of Americaâ€™s Secretary of Health and Human Services, a job that now has extraordinary impact upon this nation.The outgoing secretary is, of course, Kathleen Sebelius. And she isnâ€™t going lightly. Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) is ensuring that she hears some gunfire in her ears. Issa is chair of the House Oversight Committee. Last week he warned Sebelius that she could face a vote of contempt of Congress if she and her department continue to refuse to comply with a...

Pro-life leaders announce the declaration May 3rd. From right: Virginia Coda Nunziante, Marcia per la Vida; Colleen Bayer, Family Life International New Zealand, John-Henry Westen, LifeSiteNews.com; Joseph Meaney, Human Life International. VATICAN CITY, May 3, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At the first annual Rome Life Forum in Vatican City today, fifty-two pro-life leaders from sixteen nations called on the bishops of the Catholic Church to deny Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians in a spirit of love and mercy. The leaders signed a declaration noting that it is out of concern, and indeed love, for those same politicians that the pro-life leaders...

Outgoing Health and Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sebelius is now refusing to testify before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, a Senate aide told The Daily Caller Tuesday. Sebelius had originally been set to testify before the subcommittee about the department’s 2015 $70 billion budget request on April 2. According to another aide, however, several weeks after confirming the hearing date, she requested a date switch with the National Institutes of Health budget hearing on May 7. The committee accommodated her request. Now, after announcing her resignation on April 11, she is...

Outgoing Health and Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sebelius is now refusing to testify before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, a Senate aide told The Daily Caller Tuesday. Sebelius had originally been set to testify before the subcommittee about the department’s 2015 $70 billion budget request on April 2. According to another aide, however, several weeks after confirming the hearing date, she requested a date switch with the National Institutes of Health budget hearing on May 7. The committee accommodated her request. Now, after announcing her resignation on April 11, she is...

When the embattled Kathleen Sebelius announced her intention to resign as secretary of Health and Human Services, she pledged to stay in President Barack Obama’s cabinet until her replacement was confirmed by the Senate. Turns out, there may be a financial incentive for the former Kansas governor to take her time getting out of Washington. Next week, Sebelius becomes eligible to receive a government pension and continue certain taxpayer-funded health-care benefits when she hits her five-year employment mark with the federal government, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) policy indicates. Under OPM rules, Sebelius, who was sworn into office on April...

Tomorrow morning, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in Halbig v. Sebelius, a case that challenges the IRS’s ability to implement ObamaCare’s health insurance subsidies and mandate penalties in the 34 states with federally established health “exchanges.” Though the IRS prevailed at the district-court level, its allies have been inadvertently undermining the agency’s case ever since. First, a little background. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 clearly, repeatedly, and consistently says that the above-mentioned subsidies and penalties are authorized only “through an Exchange established by the State.” The IRS breezed...

Really? With every Republican in the country set to run ObamaCare attack ads this fall, the Democratic Partyâ€™s going to double down in a perennially red state on the captain of the Healthcare.gov Titanic?Thereâ€™s got to be a hidden motive in pushing a story this bananas to the media. But what? In her darkest hour last fall, Kathleen Sebelius suffered one of the deepest cuts from an old family friend who accused her of Â“gross incompetenceÂ” over the rollout of the Affordable Care Act and demanded that she resign as secretary of health and human services. Now she is weighing...

The Republican challenger to Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., thinks nobody should spend 47 years in Washington. Dr. Milton Wolf, a diagnostic radiologist from the Kansas City area, on Wednesday released a television ad criticizing Roberts for his nearly five decades in the nation's Capital. "After 47 years in Washington, Kansas is a distant memory for Pat Roberts," the ad opens, before pivoting to Wolf's daily routine as a Kansas doctor. The ad goes on to mention Wolf's plan to "repeal and replace Obamacare," "fight wasteful spending" and pass Congressional term limits. After his tenure, Wolf's ad promises, he'll return home...

WASHINGTON — In her darkest hour last fall, Kathleen Sebelius suffered one of the deepest cuts from an old family friend who accused her of “gross incompetence” over the rollout of the Affordable Care Act and demanded that she resign as secretary of health and human services. Now she is weighing revenge.

Health Overhaul: The midwife of ObamaCare exits stage left, leaving behind wreckage that once was the finest health care system in the world, less affordable health insurance and patients unable to find doctors and hospitals. Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of Health and Human Services — referred to in the increasingly un-Affordable Care Act's iconic use of the phrase "the Secretary shall determine," which appears in ObamaCare's guiding document no fewer than 1,005 times — has determined that it's time to go. Or rather it's been determined for her by a White House in whose parallel universe ObamaCare's current alleged enrollment...

WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) â€” Sen. Ted Cruz believes Senate Democrats are the ones who forced Kathleen Sebelius to step down as health and human services secretary.Cruz told NBC News that Democrats are worried that Republicans will take back the Senate because of Obamacare.Â“Kathleen SebeliusÂ’ resignation is the latest indication of just what a disaster Obamacare is. Obamacare is the most disastrous, the most damaging piece of legislation in modern times,Â” Cruz told NBC News. Â“And I believe she resigned because Senate Democrats are scared.Â”Cruz told Fox News that Senate Democrats Â“demanded Kathleen SebeliusÂ’ head.Â”Â“They are running scared because every one of...

The replacement of Kathleen Sebelius by Sylvia Mathews Burwell as the Secretary of Health and Human Services has been portrayed by the legacy “news” media as a new lease on life for Obamacare. The party line is that Sebelius was mortally wounded by GOP exploitation of a single uncharacteristic mistake—the botched rollout of Healthcare.gov—while Burwell is a brilliant Beltway veteran unsullied by controversy and possessing the very administrative skills needed to save Obama’s “signature domestic achievement.” … This tale fails to conform to the facts, however … The vessel is taking on water at an alarming rate, and Sylvia Burwell’s...

Outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says the administration's own predictions that the new health care law's online sign-up system would be ready by Oct. 1 were "just flat out wrong." Sebelius told NBC's "Meet the Press" in an interview airing Sunday the health care website's launch was "terribly flawed and terribly difficult." She says that eight-week period was her low point of her tenure. Sebelius last week announced her resignation. She says she wanted to give President Barack Obama enough time to bring in a new health chief.

April 13, 2014, 10:09 am Sebelius: Pressure after rollout was 'awful' By Elise Viebeck Outgoing Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she was "flat-out wrong" to believe that HealthCare.gov was ready to go on Oct. 1, 2013. Sebelius made the comment to NBC's Andrea Mitchell on "Meet the Press" in her first post-resignation interview. The secretary has only a handful of weeks left at HHS until her replacement is confirmed. In candid remarks about the healthcare rollout, Sebelius said she regretted not asking different questions when HealthCare.gov was under construction. "If I had a magic wand and...

Sebelius’ Parting Words: ‘And Unfortunately, a Page Is Missing’ April 11, 2014 - 11:21 AM By Melanie Hunter HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) (CNSNews.com) – Outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius officially announced her resignation Friday, but just like the glitches that plagued the federal website for Obamacare – healthcare.gov – which she was responsible for, Sebelius experienced a glitch of her own when the last page of her speech went missing. “So the personal reward for me at the end of the day are the folks who approach me, the strangers who approach me...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said goodbye to the White House on Friday, smiling and laughing during the press conference announcing her departure. President Obama praised Sebelius for her tireless efforts to promote Obamacare and “turning the corner” when the healthcare.gov website failed. “Of course, what Kathleen will go down in history for is serving as the secretary of Health and Human Services when the United States of America finally declared that quality affordable health care is not a privilege but it is a right for every single citizen of these United States of America.” Administration staffers gave...

Kathleen Sebelius is resigning. Sebelius must rank among the top 5 incompetent cabinet secretaries of all time. She should have resigned when the Obamacare website failed. Her agency had three years to put the website together and make sure it was up to snuff. That website has less traffic than Amazon and any number of online retailers. Yet it failed spectacularly. In fact, the website still fails on a regular basis. It remains difficult to sign up for Obamacare and it’s nearly impossible to cancel a policy on the website. The website alone ought to be enough for Sebelius to...

Milbank implied to Al Sharpton that the GOP has not politically targeted HHS Secretary Sebelius because she is white During a segment on Thursday's Politics Nation with Al Sharpton, frequent guest Dana Milbank insinuated that the GOP only has issues with Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama because the GOP is racist. During a segment with Sharpton and MSNBC's Karen Finney about Kathleen Sebelius resigning, Milbank wondered why the Republicans on the Hill do not target her more considering she was the one who implemented Obamacare. Milbank stated, “ ... so let's compare Holder to Kathleen Sebelius, who...

What Kathleen Sebelius's Exit Means for Obama—and Obamacare. With the healthcare law finally on track after a disastrous start, the secretary of Health and Human Services is leaving the administration.

. Obamacare has won. And that's why Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius can resign. Calls for Sebelius's resignation were almost constant after Obamacare's catastrophic launch. The problem wasn't just that Sebelius had presided over the construction of a fantastically expensive web site that flatly didn't work. It was that she didn't know healthcare.gov was going to instantly, systemically fail. And so the White House didn't know that healthcare.gov was going to instantly, systemically fail. The demands that Sebelius to step down — or be fired — were as deafening inside the building as outside of it. But...

She was President Barack Obama’s pro-abortion HHS Secretary and the main administration official in charge of implementing Obamacare, the pro-abortion, pro-rationing government-run health care system. With Obamacare leading to taxpayer funding of abortions, massive layoffs at hospitals and medical centers and a botched system few seem to be able to sign up on, calls to fire pro-abortion HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius were growing. Now, Sebelius has decided to step down. A White House official confirmed to multiple news outlets that Sebelious would be stepping down. Political observers are already saying Sebelius’ decision to quit is nothing more than the Obama...

OMB Leadership Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell is the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). She was confirmed by the Senate on April 24, 2013. Burwell previously served as President of the Walmart Foundation. Before joining the Foundation in 2012, she was President of the Global Development Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she worked for 10 years and was also the first Chief Operating Officer. During the Clinton Administration she served as Deputy Director of OMB, Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the...

Obama’s Rose Garden speech included an acknowledgement that the Affordable Care Act “has had its share of problems” butt did not elaborate. But buried in the 7.1 million enrollments he announced in a heavily staged appearance is a more unsettling reality. Numbers from a RAND Corporation study that has been kept under wraps suggest that barely 858,000 previously uninsured Americans – nowhere near 7.1 million – have paid for new policies and joined the ranks of the insured by Monday night. - Daily Mail Butt pay no attention to the RAND report, it’s just an epidemiological survey, generally deemed to...

After six tumultuous months, open enrollment on the new Obamacare marketplaces comes to a close. Once enrollment is over, a look at the marketplaces will give the nation a better picture of how well the Affordable Care Act is functioning. It's already perfectly clear, though -- to voters and lawmakers alike -- that the law is a work in progress. The first few months of open enrollment were disastrous, after HealthCare.gov -- the site that serves as the Obamacare portal for 36 states -- was launched with major technical problems. Still, the administration says it has largely recovered, with more...

ATLANTA, GA, March 28, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A federal judge has blocked the Obama administration from enforcing its controversial contraception mandate against Roman Catholic-affiliated organizations in the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the Diocese of Savannah. U.S. District Judge William Duffey ruled Wednesday that the federal government cannot force Catholic schools, hospitals or charities to cover sterilizations, contraceptives or abortion-causing drugs in their health plans, as Obamacare requires of all employers, because to do so would violate their religious freedoms. The Catholic Church teaches that artificial contraception of any kind is gravely sinful.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (CBSDC/AP) — U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius visited Nashville on Thursday to urge Tennesseans to sign up for insurance through the federal health care exchange before a March 31 deadline. Sebelius said that about 16 percent of Tennesseans are uninsured but eligible for insurance through the federal health care exchange, and she encouraged those who have not done so already to sign up. “If you are a 27-year-old in Nashville trying to make a break singing at the Bluebird Cafe … you can find insurance for as little as $104 a month,” she said,...

Pollster Celinda Lake's advice to fellow Democrats to take a midway position in the 2014 congressional campaigns is flawed because it can't be sold as honest. Reacting to results from her bipartisan Battleground Poll that show Obamacare to be a political loser, Lake said: "Don't defend it. Say it was flawed from the beginning and we're going to fix it." Note that she didn't advise to reject it outright, apparently because she knows that's never going to fly with Obama and the Democratic establishment and probably because it would be tantamount to an admission that the party has failed in...

In a dramatic moment at the Supreme Court Tuesday, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli told justices that U.S. business owners have no religious freedom to reject government mandates forcing them to cover abortions. Justices and lawyers also sparred over whether businesses actually have religious freedom and whether striking down the Obamacare mandate makes women second-class citizens. The notable abortion exchange between Verrilli and Justice Anthony Kennedy came during oral arguments in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Sebelius, two cases linked by the companies’ owners objecting to the Department of Health and Human Services requirement that businesses fully...

The U.S. Justice Department is telling the Supreme Court that killing a human embryo by preventing the embryo from implanting in his or her mother’s uterus is not an “abortion” and, thus, drugs that kill embryos this way are not “abortion-inducing” drugs. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby. The crux of the administration’s argument in this case is that when Christians form a corporation they give up the right to freely exercise their religion—n.b. live according to their Christian beliefs—in the way they run their business. It is in...

**SNIP** Guess who decided to skip out on the event? Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), even though the Senate was not in session and no committee meetings were on the books, according to the chamber calendar. Bayou Buzz pointed out that Landrieu wasn’t mentioned on the official schedule sent out by HHS, nor was there any mention of her in The Times-Picayune’s coverage of the event.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will highlight on Thursday local ObamaCare enrollment efforts in Louisiana, a deep red state with major 2014 midterm implications. Sebelius will appear with New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu to urge Louisianans to enroll before the March 31 deadline. Sebelius and other White House officials are targeting areas with high percentages of uninsured as the final sign-up days tick away. But Louisiana figures to be a battleground state in 2014, as Democrats seek to protect their Senate majority, and ObamaCare could play a big role in that. Many states run by Republican governors and...

EDITED Health industry officials say ObamaCare-related premiums will double in some parts of the country, countering claims recently made by the Obama administration. The expected rate hikes will be announced in the coming months amid an intense election year, when control of the Senate is up for grabs. The sticker shock would likely bolster the GOP’s prospects in November and hamper ObamaCare insurance enrollment efforts in 2015. Political operatives will be watching premium increases this summer, most notably in states where there are contested Senate races. In Iowa, which hosts the first presidential caucus in the nation and has a...

Newly published emails show how health officials stonewalled a request by FoxNews.com for information about Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' under-the-radar fundraising for a pro-ObamaCare group. The emails were published Monday by The Washington Examiner, and show how officials were sent into a frenzy by the initial inquiry. FoxNews.com first reached out to the pro-ObamaCare group, Enroll America, last May to inquire about claims that Sebelius was making calls to nonprofits to raise money for its Affordable Care Act awareness campaigns. FoxNews.com was told "there was no truth" to the tip. But the emails show officials acknowledging, privately,...

HHS does not know how many of the people who signed up for Obamacare have followed through and paid their premiums, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a House panel this morning. “I can’t tell you because I don’t know that,” Sebelius told Rep. Tom Price at a Ways and Means Committee hearing on the agency’s budget.

The Obama administration will not delay ObamaCare's individual mandate or the March 31 deadline for enrolling in the new healthcare law, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday.Sebelius offered the assurance during testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee, where Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) noted the administration has made dozens of other changes or delays to the law. ADVERTISEMENT Given problems caused by ObamaCare's faulty website last year, Brady asked Sebelius directly if delays to the individual mandate or enrollment deadline were next.“No sir,” Sebelius responded on both counts.

The big headline from the report: 15.9 percent of adults are now uninsured, down from 17.1 percent at the end of 2013. It's news that the Obama administration and the law's supporters are going to cheer as proof that the Affordable Care Act is working, and you'll likely hear a lot about it this week. The uninsured rate for the highly scrutinized 18-34 year-old demographic is dropping, but not yet to the levels the administration hopes for. The uninsured rate among 18-25 year-olds is now 23 percent, down from 23.5 percent, and the rate for 26 to 34 year-olds dropped...

As the number of seriously ill patients whose access to treatment has been impeded by the Affordable Care Act continues to increase, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius insists that “the actual number affected represents only a tiny minority of the population.” “No plan can comfortably accommodate every single person,” Sebelius pointed out. “Trade-offs are inevitable. We can’t let ourselves be distracted by the pitiful stories of a handful of unfortunate victims of rare diseases. The vast majority are receiving the coverage we deem essential.” Providing the “vast majority” with contraceptives, mammograms, and sex change surgery while short-changing the...

Emails obtained by the Washington Examiner through a Freedom of Information Act request raise new questions about how much the White House knew about Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' fundraising for Obamacare and whether she solicited donations from entities she regulates. White House officials have said they did not sign off on calls made by Sebelius to solicit donations from private entities for Enroll America, an outside nonprofit with close White House ties that promotes enrollment in the health law's insurance exchanges. Officials say they were only generally aware Sebelius would be seeking support from outside groups. In late January, HHS's Freedom of Information Act office released...

There is now little doubt that the Girl Scout cookie boycott is having an effect on cookie sales this year. Girl Scout spokesman Kelly Parisi went on The O’Reilly Factor this week to try and defuse the mounting controversy, and Girl Scout executives have sent threatening letters to their critics. Girl Scout CEO Anna Marie Chavez took to YouTube on Thursday to deny all charges leveled by the boycotters and to deny at least one charge they haven’t even made. “Recently, various individuals and organizations announced their intention to boycott GS cookies this year, based on mistaken beliefs about our...

Kathleen Sebelius: No job loss under Obamacare By: Lindsay Kalter February 18, 2014 07:40 AM EST Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says there is “absolutely no evidence” that the Affordable Care Act will drive down employment, despite a report from the Congressional Budget Office released Feb. 4 predicting fewer people would be working. “There is absolutely no evidence, and every economist will tell you this, that there is any job-loss related to the Affordable Care Act,” Sebelius told reporters in Orlando, Fla., on Monday. “Part-time physicians are actually down since 2010, not up. The number of full-time workers...